Description

In Religious Experience and the New Woman, Joanna Dean traces the development of liberal spirituality in the early 20th century through the life and work of Lily Dougall (1858–1923), a New Woman novelist who became known as a religious essayist and Anglican modernist. Dean examines the connections between Dougall’s marginal position as a woman intellectual and her experiential, combatively iconoclastic theology, and demonstrates that through her writing and mentoring, Dougall contributed to the shaping of modern spirituality.

Lily Dougall described religious experience—the sense of the presence of God—as the "rock" of her theology. Dean observes the protean nature of this rock as Dougall moved from a submissive holiness faith, to a mystical Mauricean sense of the Kingdom of God, to the relational theology of personal idealism, and reveals how psychology, which appeared to provide scientific support for her religious beliefs, eventually threatened to undermine her experiential faith.

Author Bio

Joanna Dean is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and teaches women’s and gender history. She is co-author of Guide to Women’s Archives/Guides des Archives sur les Femmes.

Reviews

“By examining the connections between Lily Dougall’s marginal position as a woman intellectual and her experiential, combatively iconoclastic theology, Joanna Dean ably demonstrates how Dougall's writing and mentoring contributed to the shaping of modern spirituality.”

“Dean's biography and its careful delineation of divergent strands of religious liberal thought has value for all students of Victorian liberal thought, not just scholars of late-Victorian religious history.Vol.51.4 Summer 2009”
— LeeAnne M. Richardson, Georgia State University

Customer Reviews

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Coming of Age in Canada1. An Evangelical Childhood2. "Lovereen": An Untold Story3. Gendering the Crisis of FaithII. Social Spheres4. "She Was Always a Queer Child"5. Personal Idealism: A Theology of Relationships6. Christian Socialism: "The Kingdom of God within Us and around Us"III. Anglican Authority7. The Making of a Modernist Mysticism8. Fellowship9. Body and Soul10. Anglican ModernismConclusionEpilogue: Psychology and Religious Experience